


nomenclature

by super_fast_jelly_fish



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Am i doing it right, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Sheik, How Do I Tag, Multi, Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Sheik and Zelda are different people, Trans Character, Trans Sheik, and the relationships arent set in stone theyre just what i plan to have, because I said so, i havent even gotten past the opening quest of botw, im just going off of fics ive read and what my friends tell me, sheik and zelda are both named zelda but not for long, the world needs more genderqueer sheik and i am here to PROVIDE
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 08:31:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18070058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/super_fast_jelly_fish/pseuds/super_fast_jelly_fish
Summary: Zelda finds herself, in ways she hadn't imagined before. She finds help along the way.





	nomenclature

**Author's Note:**

> wow what a dramatic summary whoops  
> i watched the game grumps playthrough of oot and got ridiculously attached to sheik knowing full well that he and zelda were the same person, but then i was like lol what if they weren't, and then i had a whole existential crisis about names and stuff and decided that sheik seemed like a good way to get those feelings out so here we are!! sheik and zelda are related and their name is a family name, sorry if sheik's name-changing is confusing at first but it's based on personal experience! i feel it's kinda important to let anyone out there know that names are weird and it's okay to not find one that fits right away. also i'd love to hear your thoughts!! any advice or feedback is incredibly appreciated, like i said in the tags i barely scratched the surface of botw. the only game i've experienced entirely is oot, additionally, i've never written a mute character such as link before, so if anything could be improved upon it would be good to know!! thanks for reading this if u did and enjoy my projection-y stuffs!!! i'll be back with a second chapter at some point, we'll see how much i can procrastinate before i get Productive

“Zelda. Zelda. _Zeldaaaaaaa_. Get up. We have to go.”

Zelda groaned and swatted away the offending hand of her little sister, wincing at the sudden influx of light penetrating her eyes. Tetra had too much energy for her own good at this hour.

“Five more minutes, kid. I’m tired.” Zelda burrowed deeper under the blankets and tried to ignore Tetra’s annoying presence beside her.

“Come on,” The latter whined, “It’s our first day of a new school! Aren’t you excited?”

Zelda wasn’t very excited, to be honest. For one, it was weird enough to be an upperclassman switching schools. It was a whole different situation when one considered that Zelda and Tetra would now be living in the same area, and attending the same school, as their golden child cousin, the _other_ Zelda.

The other Zelda was a year younger than her, with impeccable smarts and social abilities that made her far more worthy of their grandmother’s namesake than Zelda was.

Zelda and names had a… complicated relationship.

She remembered reading Romeo and Juliet last year, at her old school, and questioning her entire existence after Juliet’s dramatic proclamation of “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…”

It would smell the same, but without the word rose, it just wouldn’t be a _rose_.

Like how the word pillow sounded like a pillow. Or periwinkle. Or lagoon. No matter what some hopeless romantic said about names and smells, Zelda was convinced that everything had a name that suited it perfectly.

This carried over to people, as well.

Tetra, for example, conjured images of sharp edges and chilling winds over a sea storm. Likewise, the girl herself had short, choppy hair nearly as spiky as the polygonal structure of her name, and a witty personality to match. Tetra was _Tetra_. No other name could suit her half as well.

Sometimes, Zelda felt like her name didn’t suit her very well.

But her sister was right. She needed to get up and get dressed unless she wanted to miss the bus and incur Tetra’s and Impa’s wrath.

Impa was Zelda and Tetra’s adoptive mother, after both of their actual parents had to leave home for their own reasons. They each dropped in from time to time, for holidays and such, but as a pair of politicians and volunteers in less fortunate countries, they were often too busy to be at home. Impa was their closest friend, and the only person they’d entrust with the care of their children. Zelda liked Impa. She was cool.

“Five minutes. I’ll meet you downstairs.” Zelda shooed her sister away with a wave of her hand. They may have been a mere two years apart in age and closer than most siblings, but that didn’t mean that Zelda was looking to get changed in the same room as Tetra. She valued her sweet, sweet privacy.

Their new school had a uniform, and Zelda hated it the moment she’d seen it.

The outfit in question was a white polo shirt with a small blue triangular emblem on the left breast, dark blue knee-high socks that didn’t fit her legs properly, her choice of generic tan shoes, and worst of all, a woolen, pleated, plaid, and uncomfortable skirt.

Zelda didn’t have a problem with skirts most of the time, but sometimes she did. It wasn’t so much the skirt itself as being _forced to wear_ the skirt that really irked her. That being said, she really didn’t want to get in any sort of trouble on the first day in a new school. Her plan was to keep her head down, not rock the boat, and not let anyone have any reason to hate her. And hopefully not fail her classes.

The bus ride was as uneventful as a bus ride could realistically be, what with Tetra constantly poking Zelda on the arm and a group of boys in the row behind them making an unforgivable amount of racket for the hour. She remembered the last school they’d been at had them take a different bus. While it was a good school, Zelda couldn’t say she missed the kids who used to pull at her long blonde hair whenever they were bored. They were part of the reason why she wore it in a braid most of the time now.

Nobody said “hello” to her in the hallways, which really shouldn’t have been as jarring as it was. It was a new school. No one knew Zelda. She wasn’t the most approachable-looking person, either. But at her previous school, despite this outward appearance, a few classmates would always say hello. This time around, all she received was strange looks and shoulder brushes as people rushed past. She didn’t blame them. Red eyes, a stoic disposition, and a tendency to keep to herself generally sent people in the other direction.

Her eyes weren’t even that red. They were a weird shade of brown. Okay, _almost_ red, but she wasn’t a demon or anything. Which some others found hard to believe.

She went to a door labeled ‘Main Office,’ Tetra trailing behind her and making faces at everyone who passed by.

“Stop, Tetra, you’re scaring them.” Zelda said shortly. She pinched her kid sister on the arm and knocked on the door’s tinted window.

Tetra muttered something about making friends and Zelda’s lack of proficiency in that field of life. Zelda strategically ignored the shorter’s grievances (as they were frequent and plentiful). Instead, she opted to push the wooden door before her open.

Inside the office was a woman wearing purple who, after rattling off a spiel welcoming them into the school, directed the siblings into a room across the hall where the principal would be waiting. Zelda didn’t hesitate to drag her petulant child of a sister away from the candy jar and towards the principal’s office.

The principal was an imposing woman with a mane of reddish hair who towered over the tiny Tetra even sitting down. Despite being built like a brick house, she smiled warmly and spoke in a motherly tone. “Hello, Zelda. Tetra. I’m Principal Urbosa. Welcome to Hylia High School! It’s wonderful to have you.”

Zelda nodded and held out her hand for a handshake, which Urbosa seemed surprised by. The former pretended not to hear Tetra’s snickering behind her as she shook the principal’s hand. Her parents had raised her to be polite, and she was going to live by that standard.

“Now,” Urbosa continued, “In order to get you settled I’ve asked a couple of students to be your guides about the school for as long as you need, if that’s alright with you both.”

“Sure,” Tetra chirped. Zelda nodded again and tried not to make her crossed arms look as defensive as they actually were.

“Tetra, this is Agitha.” Urbosa gestured to a blonde girl with pigtails who was wearing what Zelda guessed arts and crafts would look like as an outfit. “One of my wife’s favorite students. She’s a freshman, like yourself. Agitha?”

“Hi!” The girl exclaimed. Her cheeks lifted when she smiled, making the sparkly paints she had applied to her cheekbones all the more noticeable. Like handmade freckles, except the sizes of dimes. And all different colors. She wiggled her fingers when she waved. She was wearing gloves. Why, Zelda wasn’t sure.

“It’s so nice to meet you!” Zelda had never seen a more earnest, enthusiastic person in her life. “I have art first period, so we’ve got to run if I don’t want to be late. Mrs. Gerudo, I’ll tell Tisala you said hello!”

“You’ll do well to, my dear.” Urbosa smiled kindly. She turned back to Zelda as Agitha pulled Tetra by the hand out of the office.

“As for you, Zelda,” She paused. “Goodness, that will get confusing. Two Zelda Hyrule’s in the same school. Anyway.”

The principal called Zelda’s attention to her left, where a boy with a blond ponytail and a shorter girl with green hair and equally smaragdine eyes stood, waiting.

“This is Link,” The blond waved his hand and grinned, “and his interpreter, Saria.”

Zelda didn’t say anything, but raised an eyebrow in interest at the word ‘interpreter.’

Before Urbosa could respond, Link began moving his hands in a series of gestures. The green-haired girl, Saria, spoke in a voice that reminded Zelda of a Disney princess.

“Link is mute,” She explained, “and I’m just the one that gets to tell everyone what he’s saying. Though,” she giggled, “he doesn’t think I do sarcasm well enough.”

Link made a severely deadpan expression and Zelda smirked. She liked this one.

“Oh, he says hello, by the way.” Saria added.

“Hi.” Zelda looked at Link. She was never good at interacting with people her own age, specially when she genuinely wanted to get along with them. Faking interest in politicians’ children was far easy than conveying actual interest. “I’m Zelda.”

Link made another delightfully readable face, and Zelda knew even before Saria translated that he had said _I know that already_.

Zelda grasped the strap of her messenger bag tightly as Urbosa ushered them out of the room, holding it tightly enough for her knuckles to turn white. It didn’t do much to alleviate her nerves. As much as she’d like to deny it, starting at a new school scared her. More than she cared to admit.

“So, Zelda,” Saria piped up. “Link and I have been thinking, it will kind of hard to keep track of two Zelda’s in the same school. Especially in sign language.”

She had a point. It was confusing enough at family reunions, but a building full of strangers? Zelda shuddered at the thought.

“You could call me…” She struggled to find a name that fit her. While she had started to think that her given name didn’t suit her well, it did grate on her slightly less than every other name she thought of. Only one other name hadn’t bothered her quite so much. “Call me Z, I guess. If that’s any easier. It’s a nickname. That some people call me.”

“That could work!” Saria beamed and faced Link. “If we used this for Zelda,” she made a zigzag motion with a closed fist, “we could use this for Z!” she made the same motion, but with her pinky outstretched.

Zelda, well, _Z_ , now, felt the corner of her mouth twitch as she watched Link try out the signs, mirroring Saria’s actions with concentration. So her cousin would now be referenced by a closed fist. Made sense to Z. Sometimes she felt like shaking a fist at that overachiever herself. Now she had an excuse to do so.

The morning passed by in a blur of embarrassing introductions and material that Z had learned the previous year. This school must have had a different curriculum than her previous one (not that she minded). Z had memorized a list of facts about herself that she rattled off in a monotone voice to each classroom of people she was thrust into. _My name is Zelda, you can call me Z. I lived in Kakariko before moving here. My sister is a freshman. You may know my cousin. She’s also named Zelda. What a coincidence._

She didn’t mean for her voice to come out so flat and her face to stay so still. They just _did_.

By the time lunch rolled around, even her unmoving face had started to betray how overwhelmed she was feeling. Link noticed and pointed to her, then pinched his fingers in a circle, and afterwards pitched his pointer and middle fingers at a right angle, sticking his thumb in between.

“He wants to know if you’re alright.” Saria explained. “Oh my, you do look a bit nervous.”

“I’m fine.” Z assured them both. “This is just… a lot, is all.”

“Understandable.” The green-eyed girl brushed a speck of dust off the skirt of her uniform. “Come on, let’s hurry and find a table before they all get claimed.”

Link appeared to find this suggestion adequate, and led the way to a table close to the back corner of the crowded cafeteria. Seated at the table were two scarlet-haired people Z didn’t recognize, and a blond girl that she did. Her cousin, Zelda.

“Hello, everyone!” Saria greeted. Z wouldn’t be that surprised if she threw a handful of pixie dust at the table with the way she spoke, but her hands remained clasped at her front. “This is Z, she’s new.”

Link and Saria’s friends offered her a jumbled mix of ‘hello’s. Zelda made a skeptical face at Z’s different name, but didn’t comment on it.

“I’m Mipha,” The ruby-haired girl smiled sweetly. Her features were arranged in such a way that she came across as both graceful and unthreatening, with drooping Slavic eyes and hair that fell in loose, princess-like curls.

“And I’m Sidon!” The boy sitting beside her announced. He also looked anything but threatening, but in the complete opposite manner. While Mipha seemed too fragile to do any harm, Sidon reminded Z like somewhat of an overgrown puppy. His extroverted demeanor, blinding grin, and friendly tone certainly suggested as much. His hair was around the same shade and length as Mipha’s, but choppier and pulled back into a ponytail. “It’s great to meet you, Z!”

“And you already know me,” Z’s cousin smiled wryly. “But I’m Zelda, in case you forgot.”

“I didn’t.” Z stated. She hurried to open her lunch and eat before she could let herself say anything more embarrassing.

Saria seemed to sense Z’s discomfort, and was quick to change the conversation topic. Z was grateful. The morning of nothing but introductions had been exhausting. She wasn’t used to talking so much to people she didn’t know very well. Usually she left that up to her little sister.

“So, do any of you have any tips for Z?” She prompted. “I’m sure you all know how difficult adjusting to a new environment can be.”

Mipha tapped her chin in thought, but came up empty. Zelda imparted upon Z a bit of wisdom about making sure the classes she took weren’t too challenging nor easy. Finally, Link aimed a flurry of fast hand movements at Sidon, and the tall boy’s face lit up.

“Of course, Link! Good thinking!” He turned towards Z. “Clubs! Those are the easiest way to make friends in school. I don’t know what kind of interests you have, but might I suggest the club my stepsister just started? It’s a GSA. I’m going! It sounds like a lot of fun. Also, Ruto would _not_ be happy with me if I didn’t come to support her.”

Z mulled it over while she ate her lunch. It was only the first day of school. Going to a club already might be a lot to handle. She was anxious enough as it was already. _But_ , on the other hand, the faster she made friends, the faster she’d be able to feel safe in her new school.

“I’ll go,” Z told Sidon after lunch, who was ecstatic. Both he and Link, who was walking in between them while Saria lagged behind, perked up at her admission, wearing matching expressions of glee.

“Awesome!” The taller said loudly. Link nodded emphatically along. He tapped his interpreter’s shoulder, and she looked up from the notebook she had buried her nose in.

Saria took in a series of signing from her friend and relayed the message to Z. “Link says you won’t regret it.”

Z shifted her gaze from Saria to Link, whose blue eyes were steely with determination.

“He promises.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also urbosa's wife is based on wanna_split_that_cookie happy belated valentines u fuckin nerd


End file.
